After the deaths, tortures and horrific extremes of Islamic State, a giant cross has risen on a hill outside Mosul in Iraq, an extraordinary symbol of the return of life and hope.
The cross has been erected by Chaldean Catholic Christians at Telekuf-Tesqopa, a town newly liberated from Islamic State.
Patriarch of Babylon Louis Sako, who blessed the cross and con-celebrated the first mass for over two years in St George's Church in the village, said in his homily that the event was 'the first spark of light shining in all the cities of the Nineveh Plain since the darkness of ISIS'.
According to the website of the Patriarchate of Babylon, Sako continued: 'This is our land and this is our home.'
He called on Christians to return home as a way 'to show the world that the forces of darkness, which wreaked havoc and ravaged the land', are ephemeral and that the Church of Christ, although it suffers, is 'built upon rock'.
After the service, he blessed the cross, raised to the sounds and sights of celebration fireworks and cries of 'Victory! Victory!'
He said the cross shows the world 'that this is our land, we were born here and we will die here. Our ancestors were buried in this pure land and we are going to remain to preserve them with all our might and for future generations.'
He called Christians to return and rebuild: 'We are joined to our land, to our future on the land of our ancestors. Here we can be proud of our history and here we can obtain the granting of all our rights.'
St George's was made fit for use again after its devastation by ISIS by the French organisation SOS Chrétiens d'Orient.
The placement of crosses has become a recurring gesture since the Iraqi Army began the offensive to recover the city of Mosul, Catholic News Agency reports. In every village liberated on the Plain of Nineveh, Christians have made wooden crosses and have placed them on the roofs of churches and homes.
Muslims have also taken part in raising the crosses and cleaning and restoring churches as part of the rejection by Iraq's beleaguered local communities of all that ISIS stands for.
